Fermata
by Shinobi Suzume
Summary: Desirae wasn't suppose to fly away to New York. She wasn't supposed to meet another guy. She wasn't supposed to come home broken and hiding something. You can only hide so much under band uniforms.


Nothing was suppose to happen the way it did. But of course that's why we wanted to tell our story; to let other people know that it was possible to make it through the hardest times of life. Desirae and I couldn't have asked for a better way to tell them either. It began during the summer before our senior year of high school; we had planned to look around at all of the colleges around Houston. And one day, right after school let out, she called me and told me she couldn't …

"I can't Ian. My cousin just offered to let me spend the summer up in New York City with her. I haven't seen her in 3 years, and you know how much I want to see New York!" Rae said, almost pleading. They were undoubtedly the last words I wanted to hear; I wanted to spend my summer with her, like I had every summer since 5th grade. But Rae wanted to go to New York, school ended the day before and she was to leave in a week. That didn't give me much time to spend with her.

"Ian," She asked timidly, "are you mad?"

As much as I wanted to yell and scream yes, I knew that she wanted it. Not to mention I cared too much about her to make her sad because I was.

"No." I lied blatantly, trying to convince myself that it was true. "I'm sort of happy for you, you get to get out of this boring town."

"That makes me feel so much better Ian. Well, I was hoping you could take me too the airport, come Tuesday…" She sounded a little weary, like I would say no.

"Why? Is there something wrong with your car?" If that were the case I could fix it- I was amazing with cars.

"No, I just don't want to take a taxi," She was smiling, as if she got caught playing a prank, I could hear it in her voice. "Besides, my parents aren't in town, so you're my only hope."

I wasn't paying too much attention, but I heard what she was saying. I didn't want her to go, and I wanted her to stay with me because was going to tell her how much I cared for her.

"HEY IAN!" Rae yelled into the phone, making me jerk it away from my ear, and I could her laughing as I swore, "No spacing over there!"

"Sorry, so when's your flight?" I asked, my ear still ringing.

"Next Tuesday at eight o'clock."

"Oh God, you'd have to get up at 4 to make that flight!" I exclaimed. It would take an hour for both of us to get ready, 45 minutes to get there, and only god knows how long to get through security.

"Please, Ian? I swear I'll beg. This is like the only thing I want you to do for me! I'll be yours all Christmas break… pweety pwease?" She pleaded childishly. It was so hard to say no to her, I probably couldn't if I tried.

"Fine! I'll drive you, and I'm holding you to your promise about Christmas break. And I'm crashing at you place, like old times.' I said thinking about how I use to practically live at her house.

"Sweet, it'll be a blast from the past!" she rejoiced, her voice brightening with excitement.

I loitered around with her all week. I helped her pack all of her clothes, double check everything, and her laptop bags together; I knew she'd forget something. In return for helping her I got free food; watched a few movies at the cinema, and we watched our favorite movies for two days straight. Starting with the Lord of the Rings, moving on to the Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in tights, Juno, Transformers, and all of the Harry Potter movies. We went to church on Sunday and hung out at the mall on Monday. That evening we fell asleep on the couch in her living room watching old re-runs of Pokémon, Gundam, and Outlaw Star. We grew up watching those shows together, and I thought it was great that we were watching them again that night.

My phone buzzed loudly and sent blazingly loud noises into my ears.

3:50 A.M. had shown brightly on the screen as I silenced it.

"Rae" I mumbled "Get up." I nudged her with my foot, too exhausted to get it done properly.

"Hmmm, 5 more minutes Ian" She mumbled sleepily, waving me off. I couldn't say no to that, it was cute. So I pushed myself off the couch and stumbled into the kitchen looking for a skillet. After I started cooking, I was awake, and so was Rae. I know this because just as I finished making us a few "Toads in a Hole" she came into the kitchen and snatched up a plate.

"Smells good… thanks Ian." She said setting her plate down.

"You're welcome." I said sarcastically, pulling her chair out from under her. We ate in silence, but we constantly glanced up at each other, like one moment one of would disappear. Sad enough, for me that was the case.

She went and got a shower while I loaded her luggage up into the trunk of my old Mustang. When I came back into the house she was putting away our dishes and I showered as fast as I could, and changed into a pair of blue jeans and a worn band shirt from our freshman show. It was about 4:40 when we both went into the car. She was being lazy like myself and just wore a pair of torn jeans and I laughed seeing we both were wearing our freshman band shirts. To me it didn't matter if she had make up on or if she had straightened her hair-neither of which she did- she was still the most beautiful girl I'd seen.

"Do you want me to drive? Because you're totally spacing, and I don't feel like dying young." Rae said taking the keys out of my hands. I realized what she had said, and quickly took them back.

"No I'm good, I was just thinking about which way I should go." I started the car and pulled out of the drive way and drove towards the freeway. I left the top down on the mustang, and let the cool morning air keep me awake and alert.

We talked and sang along to our favorite songs the whole way there. Then we pulled into the airport's drop off area and my happiness dropped dead. I cut the engine and helped get her things out and onto a trolley before I even tried to say anything.

"Ian, I'm going to miss you. I promise I call you and let you know how I am." Rae said surprising me with a hug. She looked like she was about to cry, I probably did too.

"I know Rae, I'll miss you too," I said hugging her back, holding her to me, resting my chin on her head. "Just take care of yourself, be careful, say no to crack, and have a good time." I pulled her to arms length, holding her shoulders, "but promise me you won't get yourself into trouble, 'cause I can't get you out of it when I'm here."

"_I'm also afraid to leave you by yourself…don't make me worry even more."_ I wanted to say, but it wasn't right for me to say it. She hugged me once more, promising she would do as I said.

"Go on, I don't want you to miss your flight." I said, unwillingly breaking our friendly embrace. Then I saw she was teary eyed, and she noticed that I'd seen and quickly pulled herself together.

"Thank you Ian, you're the best friend I could ever ask for. I'll see you in August." She took the trolley and disappeared into the airport. I drove off, but ended up sticking by until 8:00 to see her plane take off. I was sitting on the hood of my car in the hotel lot right by the airport. I said a prayer for her and refused leave till the plane was out of sight.


End file.
